Software-based computer vision start-up who have been acquired by Oculus this week, and it is easy to see why. Without additional hardware, their work reads information from a smartphone camera and re-interprets it into 3D data for technical or entertainment use. The examples embedded below all use a previous generation iPhone, and if you think this is all geeky and irrelevant, you are going to see a lot more of this in 2015 with next generation handhelds.

Rescape

A controller for augmented reality first person shooters – notice how it automatically turns other players into avatar characters and turns the actual environment into a playable level:

Stairway SLAM

Demo of 3D environment reconstruction on foot, using an iPhone 5S:

Visual SLAM Car Navigation

Similar to the previous video, but constructing the environment whilst driving – no GPS was used: